Customer Reviews

Play Winning Chess (Everyman Chess)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book aims to take the reader from beginner, possibly not knowing how the pieces move, to a player able to think and develop their game without getting wiped off the board quickly.

We start with the obligatory rules of the game. Yasser doesn't waste time, they are taught quickly and then boom, you are thrown into chess playing.

After learning the rules of the game, we are introduced to two basic checkmates, King + Queen vs. King, and King + Rook vs. King. No King + Bishop + Bishop vs. King, or the dreaded King + Bishop + Knight vs. King but that's ok as they are of greater difficulty. A beginner will do well to just learn the methods for these two mates.

All well and good, but nothing any other beginners book hasn't done before. Yasser now throttles up the pace and exposes the reader to 4 ideas, at least one of which isn't typically exposed to beginners. Force(material inequality), Time(piece development), Space(control of the board) and Pawn Structure. These will be tough to move onto for someone who has just picked up the pieces in my opinion but they are the next necessary steps.

Finally we have a collection of several short games where Yasser annotates the typical beginner mistakes that were made and why they are losing. This is probably the best part of the book and it does a good job of tieing together the four chapters on the concepts he taught. A glossary of chess terms, many not used in the book is also included.

As a foundation, this would be a good book for someone who really knows very little or nothing at all, but despite Yasser's easy style it moves fast and will require work from the reader.

Say you already know just a little bit about chess (like the piece movements and rules) and are a sharp and quick learner. This is a good for you then. It moves along very quickly and gets into basic strategy in no time at all. If you are a kid, know absolutely nothing about chess or want to take it slowly then consider getting Learn Chess by Alexander & Beach or a more basic book for a Beginner. So what I am saying is this book is well designed for certain individuals and the only other book like it is Lasker's Manuel of Chess.

This is NOT to be recommended for someone who is learning from scratch. It moves along way to quickly and gets to running before you have learned walk. Then why does it get a good rating of 4 stars?
This is a "good" book for someone who knows how the pieces move, knows the very basics of strategy and wants nothing more than a brief primer on anything before that, yet wants to get to the next parts of strategy. It doesn't overly focus on one area so it is a rather general book and a little difficult to understand where the author intended to fit this into the rest of his series. If you are more of a beginner then get "Learn Chess; a complete course" by Alexander and Beach which is far superior when it comes to covering both basic rules and strategy.

This book is the best modern primer on chess available. Yasser Seirawan writes with the authority of a top-rated chess player whose main idea is to get beginners to learn the main ideas about chess. Unlike other books, Seirawan pays little attention to specific moves and concentrates on four important cornerstones of the chess game. Material ("Force") is usually the concept which is easier to assimilate, but Yaz successfully stresses that development ("Time"), territorial advantage ("Space") and position ("Pawn Structure") are as important as the first concept. The clarity with which he explains the ideas and connects them makes this book very suitable also for initiated players who are still crude in chess theory. The merit of this book is that newcomers will learn how to decide upon their chess moves taking into account the most important points of the game. Eight short games thoroughly annotated follow, where the practical aspects of all four elements are shown. A nice picture album, a very useful glossary, and quizzes spread along the text nicely complement the reading. Recommended for beginners and for those who, although already familiar with the way the chessmen move, want to take up the game of chess more seriously. (USCF ratings up to 1200).

My chess "career" started 20 years ago as a child. However, like many people, it stagnated. I got to a certain point, and then got bogged down in trying to learn opening sequences and just ran out of steam and got bored. I was under the impression that to play chess well, you had to have a great memory to remember all those opening variations.

Yasser Seirawan tells us different. He introduces 4 concepts - Force, Time, Space and Pawn structure. Playing with these principles in mind, memory is not required. In a very friendly and conversational style used throughout this book, Yasser relates a story from when he was young. His opponent was playing his first moves really fast, and Yasser struggled to maintain equality. However, by the time the middle game arrived, they were "out of the book", and Yasser quickly dispatched him, using these principles.

This book is a very good introduction to the game of chess. It covers the basic rules in the first 38 pages and then quickly moves onto the 4 principles. Another interesting facet of the book is that it is dotted with historical references and anecdotes about some of the legendary Grandmasters of the game.

Highly recommended. I have already ordered his next book in this series, "Winning Chess Tactics"

I purchased this book after reading the many reviews here, but noticed that a lot of the reviewers are fairly strong players already. Not that I don't appreciate their judgement, but it's probably more appropriate to see what a novice thinks of this book.

I learned how to play chess at an early age, but never played much. I knew the rules, and how to move pieces, but had no idea how to really play.

This book took me from the post Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess stage (that's the only other book I had at the time) to a level where I feel comfortable playing the game. While this book starts out at a very low level, don't let it fool you; it skips a lot and gets heavy pretty fast. So it's not ideal for a total beginner, but requires a good deal of attention and is best for someone who can grasp the basics quickly, since the author skips over them in just one chapter.

Beyond that, this is an excellent book, and I have already ordered others in the series. The author neither talks down to the reader, nor does he patronize them. It's a relaxed tone, and that helps a lot.

The only negative point is that the diagrams don't have coordinates, which makes it a little difficult to get used to spotting the right squares.

This is probably the last Introduction type chess book I will read. I picked this book up mainly to start off on his series of books, but I felt that after reading this book, it really fell short in comparison with other beginners chess books, like Chess for the Complete Idiot, and his other books in the series, like "Winning Chess Tactics". I am not sure what changed between the this book and his other books, but I am glad that it did.

"Play Winning Chess" really seemed a little too advanced for the beginner. Some of the topics discussed would have left me really confused had I not read other chess books that already explained in better detail some of the topics. When compared to Pandolfinis beginners books, it seems like the author is not as well versed in teaching. This is a complete opposite contrast to his second book, "Winning Chess Tactics", where he actually goes through, step by step, explaining tactics step by step and providing excellent tests.

I can't say it is all bad, however. For me I did get a lot out of seeing introductory concepts from a different point of view. But I cannot say that I got as much out of this book as I did others that I have read.

Seirawan's ideas about playing winning chess provide the basic platform a person needs to become a better chess player. The book is written in a clear, concise manner, easy for a beginner to understand! To the person just starting, chess can seem overwhelming. Seirawan sorts out the principle themes a person needs to understand to become a solid chess player.

To me, 4 stars means "good" - "better than average" but not "excellent." Although I'm a little tired of books which review the "this is how this piece moves," this book only give a token nod to piece movement. It focuses mainly on four basic concepts: force, time, space and pawn structure. If you don't understand why these four topics are critical to your basic play, this book is for you. This book, as does the entire series, has quizzes throughout the chapters and tests at the end of each chapter. These help make sure you understood what the chapters were about. The last real chapter covers annotated games that nicely demonstrate the principles. Personally, I enjoyed the history section in the beginning. I had grown a little tired of "the queen wasn't always this powerful" descriptions in most books and I finally know when the pieces' powers changed and what they changed from... nice perk.

This is a great introduction, but it may not be for everyone. It's not a simple problem-answer type book, such as Bobby Fischer teaches chess, and calls for a lot more attention. It fits my style perfectly, and got me up to the point where I can play a decent game and appreciate some of the subtleties of the game. Have a look through it and see if it fits your learning style - this is one of the best introductary books available.